3.0 Dynamic Menu above the header div (theme development)

Hi, I am getting a php error thrown when I try to place links above the header. I believe this is because in order to do so I need to call this menu after the loop to check for posts? Maybe I am wrong though, I just did a tutorial and most of it was copy and paste so I don’t know a whole lot about the mechanics still. Anyway this is the code in my index file, I want to be able to throw it above the header div if possible though.

<?php endwhile; ?>

    <div class="navigation">
        <?php posts_nav_link(); ?>
    </div>

<?php endif; ?>

I am not really even understanding the fact that it is using a loop like that, it doesn’t appear to be passing any parameters directly.

PS, am I in the right forum to ask questions like this? I have posted at least 3 in the past only to recieve absolutely no response, if you have a better forum for me to ask theme development questions I will go there instead